Long Time No Post

Sorry guys... It's been a long time since I've posted, I know. Robyn G. kindly pointed out that it was time for me to post again. So here is a new post, albeit it a bit random and a bit scatterbrained.

Classes have been going really well. A couple of weeks ago my teacher asked me if I would like to move up to level 5, but I told him that I would rather stay where I was. Level 5 doesn't have very much grammar or speaking, its mostly just electives, which would be nice in one way, but I'm not sure that it would be entirely beneficial to my French here. It's been a lot of homework lately and just trying to keep up with all of that. Which is a change from last year... last year wasn't very intense homework wise, and the classes were easy. This year the classes aren't that intense either, but at least some of the concepts that we're covering are challenging. In my Friday grammar/language class with Madame Richard we've all adopted characters who live in a village together. Its really cool. I'm the elementary school teacher.

I'm suppose to help my landlady/friend Cecile's daughter(s) with their English soon. She wants them to be able to speak English really well and have a good grasp of it, but apparently they aren't getting along with their teacher very well. I was thinking we could do all sorts of field trips. Like do the grocery shopping together or go grab a coffee together and have to talk the entire time in English. I think if I had gone to the grocery store with my French teacher when I was learning vegetables and fruits and other food stuffs, that it would have been a lot easier to remember things by actually having seen them and being able to make the connection between the word and the object.

This past week our friend Jamie, who is getting married in June, came to visit and stayed. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with him. Chaz bought a bookcase, and he let me help him put it together. Which ended in lots of bickering and laughing (for everyone else).

Saturday (yesterday) was really nice. Chaz and I had breakfast together and then went to the flower market and did some other shopping. The flower market is one of my favorite parts of the week. All of these different florists come and set up tables and tables of flowers in Place Hotel de Ville each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning. I walk through it every Tuesday and Thursday on the way to class, but by the time my class is over, all the florists have left. Yesterday was the first Saturday that I made it out there to buy some flowers. They're really pretty. I picked out some Gerber Daisies to put in a bouquet and Chaz picked some tulips, and then the lady combined them into this massive and gorgeous bouquet. I'll try and post a picture soon (if I remember to take one).

I just had a holiday a week and a half ago. Chaz and I went to England for the week and saw his family and friends. We went to Oxford for a couple of days and stayed with Jamie and Emily in Abingdon. Chaz had an interview in Oxford for a masters program in software engineering, at which he succeeded. :) Then we spent a night with his parents at a hotel in Oxford, where we had dinner as well for their 31st wedding anniversary. The hotel was really posh, but the dinner was really really slow. Good, but slow.

After that we went back to Bristol by car and spent a couple of days there at his parent's house. We visited lots of friends and things like that. One mornign we drove out to Hereford and had lunch with Chaz's aunt and grandmother. They were very nice.

I'll post some pictures soon. Miss you guys!!